Metropolitan Chrysostomos's first posting placed first
and then his answers to questions about it
following the original - to make it easer ...
and then his answers to questions about it
following the original - to make it easer ...
God bless you. An
interesting and short commentary
by Metropolitan Chrysostomos on a newspaper article
that was sent to him by a friend.
† Bp. Auxentios
by Metropolitan Chrysostomos on a newspaper article
that was sent to him by a friend.
† Bp. Auxentios
On Jun 5, 2017, at
12:39 PM, xxx wrote
Innovative Orthodoxy
meets
frightful sectarianism.
meets
frightful sectarianism.
Well, as usual, I am
not on neither side. Nor am I in the middle. I am with the “otherly”:
exactitude in tradition bound to moderate freedom in the Christian yoke of
love.
The reception of the
man into a new and innovative kind of Orthodoxy was by an extreme form of
economy (as pictured in the photograph, a ritual unknown to us!), rather than a
proper Orthodox Baptism, which is not only a Mystery specific to Orthodoxy, but
one that represents something quite different than the western sacrament. Most
Orthodox are so unaware of their own Faith that they cannot explain that fact,
usually for fear of appearing sectarian or, again, because they lack a basic
understanding of the ritual to begin with. Neither is sectarianism involved in
our view of Baptism (“enlightenment”) nor, were it so, can I imagine ignorance
and bigotry as its valid antidote.
The reaction to his
conversion with ignorant and sectarian ideas about graven images (these poor
people cannot distinguish veneration from worship?) and other backwater bigotry
appalls me. The babble about cancer and linking it to conversion speaks of an
irrational understanding of God’s “wrath” that would place me in opposition to
whatever vision of God these people entertain. What an awful conception of God.
Cult-like notions of “wrath” unwashed by mercy and Christ’s ministry of love
are not worthy of our attention.
I remain astounded, at
times, at what passes as the God of the universe which gives Christianity its
force: an ontological force formed in love, bathed in mercy, conveyed in pious
action inseparable from inner faith, and surely higher than the lowliness of a
sectarian narrow-mindedness that ares not ultimately leave to Christ, Who is
the Church, the judging of another man’s heart.
A “lose-lose”
situation is all that I see. On all sides, I walk away from a sour taste in my
mouth: “Ye have changed judgment into gall, and righteousness into hemlock.”
In Christ, † Bp. C.
/further replies:/
From: Bishop Chrysostomos
The “Otherly,”
Innovation,
Baptism, and
God’s Wrath
Innovation,
Baptism, and
God’s Wrath
Feast of the Holy Spirit, 2017
Dear Diocesan Clergy, Faithful, and Friends:
Evlogia Kyriou. Gospod’ blagoslovit!
Evlogia Kyriou. Gospod’ blagoslovit!
